


Tiny Miscreants

by littlesolo



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-23
Updated: 2015-02-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 22:59:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 6,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2829110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlesolo/pseuds/littlesolo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes it's just one.  Sometimes it's both.  No matter how, Maria and/or Natasha is a small child and either the Avengers or Phil and his team and associates have to deal with them.  Sometimes both, I mean we're talking Maria and Natasha here.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Tag

**Author's Note:**

> "Before you shoot me, let me explain."

"You lost them" says Victoria Hand as she pushes her glasses up her nose, hoping that’s the reason for her headache.

"I’ll find them!" states Phil in a more desperate sounding voice than he’d like. Behind him Bobbi rolls her eyes and nudges Trip and they go off to search. Izzy nudges Victoria in the side.

"What’d he lose exactly?"

"Maria and Natasha in child form. It’s a long story that involves HYDRA" says Victoria with a sigh.

"Oh boy…"sighs Izzy.

* * *

Leo isn’t entirely sure what’s happening. He no longer hallucinates Jemma, but now he’s hearing giggling. Child like giggling. He goes back into the lab where Jemma and Skye are hunched close together over a laptop.

"Have you two heard any- ah…?" Fitz rethinks his sentence when he realizes it makes him sound like he’s losing it again. But there it is again! He spins around and could have sworn there was a flash of brown and red hair. "You both saw that right?!" asks Fitz of Jemma and Skye. The girls follow him into the hall.

"Hello?" calls Skye but Jemma is crouched near a darkened utility area. Melinda is just coming around the corner with Trip, Lance, and Bobbi when the giggles start again. Two small hands tap Jemma’s shoulders before two small figures dart out shouting "TAG!" as they flee. Both run right into Melinda and the others. Melinda looks down at the little faces of Natasha and Maria, their eyes sparkling with mischief, and raises an eyebrow at them while Jemma and Skye "aw" in the background. Undeterred, they tagged Melinda as well before rushing into Trip and Bobbi’s ready arms. Bobbi has always been good friends with Natasha and letting her ride on her shoulders made them instant friends again.

"Gabe!" yells Maria gleefully as Trip carries her.

"Close! That’s my grandad. I’m Trip" says Trip with his charming smile and Maria grins back. Phil sighs in relief with Victoria and Izzy behind them. Given their files, Phil can’t help but smile at the grins that seem stuck on their faces. Victoria and Izzy seem….sort of stuck in shock at seeing the smaller version of their friends. When the two start squirming, Bobbi and Trip hand them over to Jemma and Skye.

There are many different types of trouble that one can get into in the lab. In this case, there isn’t one, there are two. Later, Jemma and Leo will declare the lab area a disaster zone but at the moment it’s just a place for little Maria and Natasha to have fun. Melinda is supervising but the occasional explosion still makes Phil jump and Izzy crack up.

Legos have nothing on the holotable and the silly putty that Jemma makes is somewhat…enhanced due to their lab materials. Melinda has impressive reflexes since she and the two miscreants are the only ones not hit.

Eventually the little ones wear out, despite insisting that they weren’t tired. Thankfully, when Victoria and Phil go check the bunks later, Maria and Natasha have returned to their normal states.

Skye however has compiled all of the footage of them and send it to their emails. And made herself a back up.

Just……because.


	2. Cohorts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony has a lot of explaining to do. He has what appears to be Maria and Natasha sitting in his workshop, except they're kids. Pepper doesn't even want to know how, just fix it. In the mean time, she takes her two friends and hopes Natasha isn't a trained assasin already, but it seems like Natasha is a bit infatuated with Maria so that'll help. And Maria? Well, she may look annoyed but any time a man steps to Nat she glares at them until they back off. At least Nat speaks broken english.

Little Natasha seemed to have immediately latched on to Maria as a friend.   
Even if Little Maria is wary of just about everything.

Not Pepper though. Pepper has a quality that has always helped her, especially when working with Tony, and that’s being able to evaluate and manage things quickly. She wasn’t on the same scale as Maria or Victoria Hand, and hoped to never have to be, but it was something that Maria and Natasha seemed to pick up on.

The first thing Pepper did was call Sharon and Jane since both where the ones who knew the now little ones best. Jane arrived with Darcy.

"No way!" whispered Jane when she spotted little Natasha. Darcy peeked over her shoulder and then proceeded to give her a shove like Elaine Benes while shouting "NO WAY!" Sharon arrived and gave Darcy a raised eyebrow until she stopped midstep at seeing little Maria. With Jane poking her head around the doorway and telling Darcy to calm down, Pepper got the feeling that if she ran a daycare, this is what either parents visiting or picking up their kids would be like.

Clint comes over to report that Tony thinks he’s half way there, and Maria scoots back but still stays in front of Natasha. Natasha is peeking over the top of Maria’s head, still a tad shorter, but she’s keeping her balance with her hands on Maria’s shoulders. Clint steps back and the two little ones follow Darcy and Jane out of the room, Maria staying between Clint and Natasha and wary the whole time.

"What’s that about?" asks Clint

"Maria’s Dad and Uncle were not nice people. What’s Nat call her? Athena? She’s always been that way. She doesn’t know you Clint and to a little kid you might seem threatening until they meet you. But she’ll still protect Nat. What do we do?" asks Sharon turning towards Pepper.

There’s a crash in the other room and the sound of something shattering.

"Tony did it!" comes one small voice.

"Did NOT!" comes from Tony. Sharon and Pepper make their way over where Jane and Darcy are cleaning up what looks like a shattered drinking glass. Sharon looks at Maria who is coloring but also watching Tony try to remove the object that caused the accident from the wall. One of his experiments. Clint is hanging back a bit but watching everything. Pepper looks at Natasha, who is standing in her chair coloring at the table with Maria and the picture of innocence. Pepper catches her eye and Natasha points to Tony and says "Him" with her Russian accent. Sharon spots the grin widening on Maria’s face and suspects that for once , it wasn’t entirely Tony’s fault.

It’s amazing how many things at Stark Tower are kid friendly.   
Not intentionally, but they’re loads of fun.   
For instance, Tony has a car collection, that is a well known fact. And since they belong to Tony, they’ve all been enhanced with secret compartments and things.

Currently, this has Darcy, Jane, Clint, Sharon, and Tony scrambling to find them among the six parked there at the moment. Natasha and Maria had rolled under one and then popped up in one two cars away. It was like a bad came of whack a mole. Apparently, both girls had been nimble even when they were tiny beings.

"I got Maria!" calls Clint as he manages to pull her out gently by the waist. That is until Natasha pops up and bops his nose and he lets go. "Hey!" It didn’t hurt it was more of just a shock. He had no idea where she’d come from but he’d seen them both giggling as they slid beneath the seats again.

Jane’s ready to give up when she looks up and sees the two little scamps grinning and just watching them search with their legs dangling over the walkway down. Sharon sees Jane and follows her gaze and the two go sprinting after the gigglers.

They catch up to them in the kitchen area where Bruce has given them each their own small bowl of popcorn. Unhappy with that arrangement, Natasha puts hers in a bigger bowl and Maria adds hers to it. Natasha has run a few steps ahead and Tony smells popcorn in the air and goes to steal a kernel when Maria slides it between his legs and Natasha picks it up from behind him.

"HEY!" complains Tony.

Pepper advises that he get back to work unless he wants to continually be outsmarted by small children.


	3. No Returns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha may never forgive her for this.

There is a capuchin monkey loose in Stark Tower.

It had all started as some screw up that had to be kept under wraps. A HYDRA bomb that turned Maria and Natasha small. It probably wasn’t it’s intended use or even known side effect. Their change hadn’t taken place until about twenty minutes after the attack.

So to keep the two eight year olds occupied, Melinda and Bobbi along with Lance and the rest of the team had taken them to the zoo. Long story short, under the watch of seven SHIELD agents, two eight year olds had smuggled a monkey out of the zoo.   
  
For Leo Fitz.   
Without his knowing.  
Not that he hadn’t been overjoyed by the gift, that is until Melinda told him they’d have to take it back.

"How exactly did this happen?" asks Phil.

"Easy, we forgot we were dealing with little versions of Natasha and Maria" says Melinda. Sharon plops into a chair behind her.

"What’s that supposed to mean?" asks Phil.

"It means Maria wrangled dogs for dog fights for her asshole Uncle and Natasha was trained from a young age. A monkey couldn’t have been that hard for them. What did they use? Skye or Jemma’s bag? Or was it Leo’s bag?" asks Sharon.

"Fitz’s bag" answers Melinda.

"Well, how do we catch it?" asks Phil.

"The little thieves are being less than helpful. Natasha only knows broken English but either knew the word gift or Maria taught it to her. Maria says it was a gift and it belongs to Fitz" says Melinda.

"Well, Tony wants it gone and so does Pepper" says Phil with a sigh. Sharon looks down and sees the monkey picking at Leo’s hair.

"Nuh Uh. Leo won’t help either and the monkey takes off when we get too close" says Melinda. "The others are trying to find a way to capture it too."

"You know that when they turn back to normal, they still won’t help you catch it, right?" says Sharon.

And the mess that monkey makes. Natasha is going to kill Maria for ever getting her steal the stupid monkey. Little does she know, it was her idea.


	4. Lug Nugs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maria Hill is very much like Steve Rogers when it comes to being a soldier, which infuriates Natasha because Maria literally jumped on a grenade for them. Good thing it wasn't a normal grenade or Maria would be a streak of red and Natasha's ledger would be gushing. But now, Maria is a child and Natasha doesn't know what to do. She's useless, she can't interrogate or use her skillset to help.

She’s hiding. Maria is. Natasha wishes she was.

Maria had been met with loud voices and everyone looking at her and panicked. Sharon had been trying to get everyone to shut up once she knew had happened, but Maria had been too confused and too scared. So the little one had fled and found somewhere to hide amid all the still settling rubble.

So now Natasha was hunting. Except she couldn’t give off that impression. Searching was a better term. It had been a shock seeing Maria in a form that she’d only seen in photographs, the few that there were from mostly school events, but the fear was hard to miss. Natasha stops at a taxi cab with it’s trunk popped open. Smart girl. She’d crawled through the trunk into the backseats and was hiding in the darkness there. Should she need to escape though, she still had either door as an option.

"Hi" said Natasha quietly, making herself comfortable on the curb next to the cab. No reason to make Maria feel pressured, she’d come out when she felt it was safe.

"Hi" came the quiet reply. Natasha could just make out the twinkle of a pair of blue eyes.

"I’m not going to hurt you. My name is Natasha. I’m here to keep you safe, so is my friend Sharon" explained Natasha calmly. Natasha simply stated facts, not wanting to come across as overly friendly and give the impression she was lying or not tell her anything and make her suspicious. Natasha suspected that Maria had always had a reason to be wary and it served her well in her career, but she didn’t want to give Maria reason to see her that way.

Maria had crept forward enough for Natasha to see her still chubby cheeks clearly, but a sound from behind Natasha has her retreating and Natasha spinning around with her gun ready. But it’s only Steve and Sharon is already getting rid of him.

"You don’t have to worry about those lug nuts" says Natasha.

"Lug nuts?"

"Yeah. That’s what a friend of mine used to call them. Together, they’re useful but on their own, they’re kind of stupid" explains Natasha. It gets a giggle out of little Maria.

About five minutes later Sharon spots Natasha walking back towards them with Maria’s little hand in hers.


	5. Lemon Bread

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They're kids again, it's Tony's fault, he'll have it fixed within the hour he said - it's been 4 hrs. Thankfully, Pepper's found a good activity to keep them occupied and tire them out. Baking. They love to punch the bread down, Maria especially.

Pepper had enlisted Jemma and Skye to help watch the little ones and Bobbi and Leo had tagged along. Phil and Victoria were coordinating with Pepper while Maria was…busy.

At the moment, Natasha was carefully measuring out spoons of lemon juice to add to the sugar mixture with Jemma. Maria is happily pounding the dough. A tad too enthusiastically for Leo’s liking. He’d been trying to figure out how this could have happened and was working out possible theories on his tablet.

Bobbi had always looked up to both women and was going to make sure they stayed safe so that she could continue to learn from them. She noticed that while Natasha seemed to be enjoying the closeness of Jemma and Skye as well as her new friend Maria, Maria seemed to grow nervous whenever someone went by the kitchen area.

"Maria" called Bobbi, "You’re safe here okay?" Maria mets her eyes and after a long look, nods, but her guard only lowers slightly. Bobbi worries what could have their fearless leader so wary at the age of five or six but isn’t sure she really want’s to know.

Natasha has picked up on it though. Her little face frowns at her and Bobbi holds up her hands to signal that she’ll stop…whatever it was she did. Natasha apparently didn’t like her new friend being upset and scooped a bit of the sugary mixture and placed it on Maria’s nose.

"Hey!" says Maria, but there’s a smile on her face now and the two are now working on the dough together. When the two are done and the bread is cooking, Skye suggests a trip to the park. Pepper promises to watch the bread bake and then take it out to cool. Melinda and Phil have come along for extra protection.

It’s a decent park, a good sized play area and jungle gym and tubes and slides, even swings. Except both Maria and Natasha are looking at it like they’re not sure what to do. Natasha tugs at Phil’s pant leg.

"Is this a task?"

"I’m sorry?"

"To see how fast we can do it?" asks Natasha. The silence that follows is more than just uncomfortable.

"It’s not a task, just a place to have fun" says Jemma. Natasha and Maria share a look and trudge over to where Fitz is still working on his tablet.

"Tag" says Maria as she pokes his forehead and then the two are off like a shot.

"Wait, um, I’m not, erm-" says Leo as he stands up. Bobbi, Jemma, and Skye all take a large step back. Leo does his best to catch them but winds up tagging Phil because he’s busy on his phone.

"Hang on Fitz, I’m not playing" says Phil.

"Neither was I!" calls Fitz as he makes for the monkey bars.

* * *

Bobbi and Skye wind up carrying the two exhausted small ones back to the tower. It had been nice seeing the two have fun (with Jemma and Skye recording it all or making Leo do it) but when Natasha was running on top of the wavy monkey bars and Maria wanted to learn, Melinda intervened.

Back at the Tower Tony thinks he’s got it, but the girls are happily eating the bread they made. There’s lemony sugar all over their faces and hands. Bobbi and the others look up when they hear Little Maria asking Tony for a hug. That doesn’t sound like her. They’d better change her back quick if it’s altering—

"AHHHH!!!!! YOU’RE ALL STICKY!!!!" yells Tony from the other room.

Never mind.  


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha's jealous of her own self, or well her tiny self. Somehow Natalia Romanova's been zapped to the present, or future. Whatever. It has to do with magic and Jane's machine's. The science team is on it. In the mean time, tiny her, Natalia's latched onto Maria it seems. And the little brat knows she's pissing off Natasha. Is it normal to be this annoyed at yourself? or to praise yourself for having Maria'd attention even at this age? Definitely annoyed esp. with Natalia sticking her tongue out

Phil is hiding behind Victoria and Clint is hiding behind Phil. There are two of them. A normal Natasha and a small Natasha. And it scares the hell out of both men.

A normal Natasha and a small Natasha. And it scares the hell out of both men. Little Natasha trusts Maria and only Maria. Well, she trusts Natasha too, but she’s attached to Maria at almost all times. She also knows how this bugs the normal Natasha. For their sanity, The little one is being referred to as Nat and the normal one as Natasha.

All of this started when dismantling one of HYDRA’s inventions was done too close to one of Jane’s and Mac had gotten the two to interact while Natasha was walking past and well…here we were. With two of them. The only thing they could do really was wait and hope that the science team could figure something out, even though Jane was almost too mad to speak with Mac due to his carelessness.

Maria can’t help the sinking feeling when the Bus starts to tilt to the left and nearly sends them all skidding to the other side of the plane. Natasha wasn’t able to get her footing and rolls head over heels until her head strikes the side.

"OW!" The cry had come from both Nat and Natasha. Maria feels the back of little Nat’s head and feels a goose egg of a bump forming and guesses that the same is forming on Natasha. Natasha is glaring because while Maria is tending to little Nat, she’d prefer Maria tending to her.

Maria however is oblivious, or at least gives that impression. It’s hard to miss the two of them making faces at each other. Natasha is unflappable in the field but her smaller self is clearly getting on her last nerve. Maria can’t do anything though without making things worse.

The plane at least righted itself and landed safely. Maria reported the joint pain sensation to Victoria who relayed it to Jane. Later when there is a situation that needs to be dealt with, Maria rushes off behind Victoria, handing off Nat to Natasha.

"Here, keep yourself out of trouble." Easier said than done. Natasha remembered how she was trained but here there weren’t as many restrictions. So, Nat’s gymnastics in the cargo hold were less than enjoyable since every bump Nat felt she felt too.

When everything is straightened out, and there is only one Natasha, Maria is busy tending to all of Natasha’s bumps and bruises. Natasha had always been nimble but balance came with practice and Natasha had suffered for her lack of skill.

Maria giving her a bowl of chocolate pudding helped though.


	7. Socks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "What do you mean you have kid Maria?" "Exactly as I said, I swear people don't listen to me" "Tony!" "Maria is a child and she kicks really hard, so please come and pick her up" "Maria is in the other room, did you drink Dummy's smoothies again?" "OH yea, Foster said we can't let Maria, your Maria, adult Maria come near little Maria. SOme sort of paradox, we're still working it out. Probably best not to tell her actually"

Natasha manages to track the little imp down.   
So far, Natasha had noted that there was an open package of new colored socks and Jane had said she’d handed over all her sharpies to Little Maria before she’d disappeared. Natasha tracked the crumbs of goldfish crackers to the empty office. 

Natasha makes a point of being heard as she enters the room and takes a seat in a chair near the door.

"Maria, are you in here?" calls out Natasha gently.   
A sock puppet’s head pops up from behind the desk.

"No" answers the puppet with a small voice. The sock puppet isn’t quite finished, the markings only faint on the red sock with blue cloth covering the heel and toe. It disappeared though as quickly as it had arrived and by the sound of a marker being uncapped it’s back to being worked on.

"Are these Tony’s socks?" asks Natasha absentmindedly.

"Maybe" answers the puppet again, this time sporting two large eyes.

"Then can I make one too?" asks Natasha. She’s careful and doesn’t sit on the floor or come closer to the desk until the package is pushed towards her and Maria scoots out a bit to share the markers. Natasha picks a green and blue pair and puts both over her hand like Maria did, so that she can draw on it without staining her hand with the markers. Maria has moved onto another pair, this time a black and grey pair. Using the silver sharpie, this one seems to be more of a dinosaur.

"What’s it’s name?" asks Natasha, nodding towards the current creation.

"Nate"

"Nate?"

"Nate the Great" says Maria firmly. "Roar!" The roar is sort of whispered but the smile is genuine.

Jane finds them later, all six pairs of socks used, having fun and giggling with Maria sitting in Natasha’s lap.


	8. Museums, Books, and-

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha wants to kill, but she puts that all away because tiny little Maria is already amazing at reading body language and people and she can't have Maria scared of her. Maria's been reverted to a child, but the old scars and fresh wounds from her father are present and it takes all her strength to not find the man and kill him. Maria eyes her warily, no adult has been kind to her, not yet.

Natasha is trying to think fast, of a way to seem non-threatening but little Maria first saw her with her guns on. Suddenly Natasha has an idea and sends out a text.

"I know you don’t know me, but my name’s Natasha. There’s someone coming you might know though…" says Natasha. It’s a big might. Maria hadn’t even met Peggy at this age, much less Sharon and Kevin. Turned out that she was worried for nothing.

"KEVIN!" cried out little Maria and went racing over to his side. Kevin had already crouched down and spread out his arms wide, but Maria toppled him over as she tackled him with a hug.

"Hey scout! You hanging out with Natasha?" asks Kevin and Maria nods. "Well you lucked out there! How about I stop by later for a snack, and get Sharon to come too?"

" ‘Kay" answers Maria. It’s the first thing Natasha’s heard her say. But Maria comes over and puts her hand in Natasha’s.

"So what are we going to do ‘til then?"

* * *

Natasha takes her to the museum of Natural History. It’s her favorite place to go to get away and she wants to see what Maria thinks. They have fun. Natasha has to hold Maria up a few times to read some of the signs, but doesn’t mind since Maria is having fun telling her about everything.

They stop for lunch and Natasha sets a lemonade and sandwich in front of Maria who seems surprised that it’s for her. It makes Natasha want to punch something when Maria asks if the whole sandwich is really for her, but she lets it go so as not to alarm Maria. Kevin and Sharon arrive shortly after and Maria bounces in her seat at the sight of her adopted sister. Sharon hugs her and they both squeal in delight. A sound that Natasha thought she’d never hear coming from Agent 13 and has Kevin covering his ears.

"So we’ve been at the hospital fixing paper cuts all day! What have you two been doing?" asks Kevin with exaggerated expressions and wiggles of his eyebrows. Maria giggles and then tells them all about the museum.

Natasha sees it. It’s hard not to. It would seem that even as a child Maria was a bit subdued at first but once she decided she liked you, that was all there was to it.

They finished up their meal and strolled through the park on the back to the Tower. The toy shop catches Natasha’s eye but Maria seems to be almost reluctant to go in. At Natasha’s assurance that she’d be with her though she went in. Natasha didn’t like the feeling that Maria had spent most of her time looking from behind windows as a child.

While Maria started off timidly, by the end, she was practically skipping down the aisles. It didn’t surprise Natasha in the slightest that despite her young age, Maria could already read. She skipped words she had trouble with, but Natasha made her go back and helped her sound them out.

Natasha wound up buying about ten book, one being a book on how things worked and used wooly mammoths to explain things. They also left with three stuffed creatures, none of them bears. Natasha had never exactly been fond teddy bears, but she never understood Maria’s dislike of them but chalked it up to just a quirk.

"Teddy bears don’t do anything. They just sit and watch. They don’t help and don’t protect anyone" mumbles Maria. Natasha is then fighting the urge to kill again. What she envisions is little Maria bleeding and hurting in front of the stuffed bears and having their plastic eyes look back at her, empty. It makes a little more sense why Maria has a fondness for monsters. Natasha can’t help but smirk at the double meaning. The stuffed alligator was a find.

* * *

When Maria changes back, one of the first things she wants to know is where the awesome stuffed animals came from and when they’re taking Kevin and Sharon to the museum. Natasha smiles and tells her when ever she’d like. As for the stuffed creatures, Natasha will make a whole room just for them it makes Maria happy.

Well, she’d get Steve, Sam, and Clint to build it. They’d have fun doing it anyway.


	9. - -and Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "What happened Captain?" "It's compcliated Hill" "Uncomplicate it, now" "I uh" "Put Widow on" "I don't think" "Put her on" > (Russian). "Natasha?" > > "Hill?" "Why does Natasha sound like a child?" "Because she is ma'am" "What?!"

"C’mon Hill! She knows me best" argues Clint. Normally, he’d be right, but this is anything but normal.

"We’ll see, but your Russian is horrible" replies Maria.

"Says who!?" asks Clint indignantly. Maria can’t help her smirk.

"Her."

They round the corridor together and Maria likes this less and less. SHIELD isn’t as bad as some others, but it’s walls and hallways are hardly friendly and the child she spoke to sounded less than ten. Natasha had been in Red Room’s hands by then and this would only seem threatening. The same thing must have occurred to Clint because then they’re both nearly sprinting to where Natasha is waiting for them.

Entering the room is a little girl, around the age of eight with reddish hair but there was no mistaking those green eyes.  
"Hey, Nat!" says Clint with his usual disarming smile, but the use of an endearment or hearing it come from a male, they can’t tell which, seems to alarm her. Clint sees this and steps back out into the hall, taking the guards with him, despite their orders from Sitwell to guard the prisoner.

"She’s not a prisoner!" barks Maria, causing the soldiers to stand at attention.  
"Not…prisoner?" comes the small voice from behind her. Maria crouched down next to her. Whatever romantic feelings Natasha and Maria had for each other, neither had acted on them yet but this was different. SHIELD had made a promise to protect Natasha, and Maria intended to honor that, regardless of her age. She was still under their protection, no matter what Jasper Sitwell thought.  
«No, you are not a prisoner. You are under our protection» says Maria making sure to look Natasha in the eye.

«I know you…you were on the phone…» Maria nods and gives what she hopes is a gentle smile.  
«What’s your name?» asks Maria. She doesn’t want to have come this far only to ruin things by calling her the wrong name.  
"Natalia" answers the girl, but she whispers it into Maria’s ear, so while Maria now knows it, she knows that it’s something not given easily. Not even at this age, and Maria’s trying to ignore the way that turns her stomach. Natalia hops down and puts her little hand in Maria’s.

They’re almost out when Jasper stops them and Maria asks Natalia to stay next to Clint. She stays close but won’t hold his hand while Maria argues with Sitwell in low tones. Clint’s doing his best to hide his hurt at Tasha not recognizing him but at the moment he’s tracking the four agents watching her. Sharon walks up to ask him something and gives her a little waive which is retuned and Clint makes an exaggerated face.

"How come she’ll waive to you, but won’t help me come up with a nickname for her or laugh at my jokes?" asked Clint of Sharon.  
"Because your jokes aren’t funny and ‘smarter than you’ isn’t something you tell people" replies Sharon, earning a giggle.  
"What did they call _you_ , Carter?" asks one of the lurking agents.  
"Careful Ashton, or they’ll be calling _you_ Gimpy" growls Sharon as she and Clint move protectively in front of Natalia.

"Stand down, Agent Houghton, or you’ll be cleaning the Carrier’s air vents while we’re at max altitude" orders Maria. As soon as the other agents disappear, Natalia’s hand is back in hers.

* * *

Outside, Natalia seems to realize that she isn’t a captive at all, not just being told that she isn’t, and her eyes wander and take everything in at once.

"So, where are we off to, boss?" asks Clint.

«You are the boss?» asks Natalia. She’s pulled her hand from Maria’s and stopped where she was walking. Her gaze looks equal parts amazed and frightened.

«Of some of the agents there. I am Clint’s boss. It is very hard, he is always getting into trouble» explains Maria, only partially exaggerating.

"Hey!" complains Clint and it gets another giggle from Natalia, the first Maria’s heard.

"We’re off to be updated by Selvig and Jane" starts Maria before crouching down in front of Natalia again. «But Clint only comes if you want him to. If not, he can just watch us have fun from way back» says Maria, giving Natalia a choice. She’d noticed how even though she smiled a bit at Clint now, she made sure to keep Maria between them. Maria had also noted how Natalia had taken in the taxies, subway entrance, and fire escapes and alleys the moment they’d hit sunlight.

Natalia looked at Maria for what seemed like a lot longer than a few moments with a piercing stare that was all too familiar but Maria didn’t flinch. Natalia then shook her head no. Clint then gave her a bow and Maria a mock salute that had her raising an eyebrow before taking off, presumably for the roof of a nearby building.

* * *

While Maria talked with Selvig, Natalia let Jane show her the stars. With all the high tech equipment available, you wouldn’t expect to see them spread out with constellation flash cards and the stars simply projected on the high ceiling. When Maria joins them, Darcy’s just handed her a grilled cheese sandwich.

«I wish Mouse was here. She knows the Greeks better» says Natasha, there is cheese dripping from the sandwich and on her hands but she looks every bit the child she should be.

«Who’s Mouse?» asks Maria, attempting to eat her own sandwich rather than scoop it up.

«Another girl. She’s my friend. She’s smart and the other older girls call her ‘Little Mouse’» explains Natasha. She then seems to realize that she’s shared too much and goes quiet.

«You know you have been very good with me» says Maria, and Natasha raises a curious but cautious eyebrow. «I know my Russian isn’t very good. It’s…passable. Almost» says Maria with a wink and Natasha laughs. Not a giggle like before but a laugh.

«It is not too bad. Much better than Clint’s. I think he learns his from Moose and Squirrel» says Natalia with a playful scowl.

* * *

That was months ago. Natasha remembers. Especially since Darcy sent her a case of frozen toaster ready grilled cheese sandwiches when she changed back. Her smaller state had lasted four weeks, the last three Maria had been forced to leave on assignment. Maria hadn’t wanted to go, but no one had been more upset than little Natalia. Her care had then become Sharon’s responsibility but the girl had missed Maria horribly.

Even after Natasha returned to herself, it was another two weeks before Maria came back. A lot has happened since then. But three years later, the Avengers locate Natasha’s old friend with the Maximoff twins. And Jane isn’t surprised at how six months after that, Natasha proposes to Maria under the stars.


	10. Sugar Crash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh no, tiny Natasha is crying. Steve's going to die. He just said she couldn't have anymore soda! She drank 3 cans already where does she put all that sugar?! Oh no Maria's here oh no. She looks pissed. Tiny Natasha cries even louder when she see's Maria and Steve's getting ready to bolt. Except Maria just quirks an eyebrow at tiny Natasha and she goes quiet. How, what witchcraft is this?!

To be fair, there is no sugar in Diet Mountain Dew. It’s all that Stark Tower carries now because Tony got tired of the sugar crash headaches.

There is however, a whole lot of caffeine.

Little Natasha won’t be sleeping anytime soon. Maria cocks her head in a way that tells Natasha she’s to follow. The pint size red head does so, but not before swiping Steve’s shield. She trails after Maria, carrying the shield by it’s leather straps over her head. The image is both ridiculous and endearing and Steve can’t bring himself to tell her to bring it back.

Maria leads her to a training room, Natasha immediately runs to the knives and starts twirling them and hurling them at one of the dummies. When Bobbi and Sharon show up, they’re both a little shocked at the fact that Maria not only has her back turned to Natasha every so often but is also tossing a few knives herself. Actually, it looks like Natasha is showing her how and correcting her form. They watch for a few moments as Maria’s aim improves after Little Natasha adjusts her stance, her little hands moving Maria’s legs into place with a frown.

Maria’s throw has Little Natasha’s full focus. She’s watching with a trained eye and a skilled one despite being possibly seven at best. Already a lithe weapon. Sharon is willing to bet that the frustrated expression at Maria’s poor throws was similar to the ones worn by her instructors. The only difference is the happy expression she wears at Maria’s improvement.

Natasha is thrilled to get a chance to train with Bobbi’s baton’s. The whole experience is a bit surreal to both Bobbi and Sharon (especially when they take note of Steve’s shield and Clint’s bow in the corner) but they have fun and along with Maria (who seems to be having the most fun) and wear the small assassin out until she’s ready for bed. She goes to her room pushing her trophies, which now include Bobbi’s batons, down the hall on Steve’s shield like one would a sled.

Maria had made sure all handcuffs were stowed away under lock and key but the lethal ballerina still found a pair, much to Maria’s displeasure.

* * *

When Natasha wakes in the morning, she throws off the handcuffs so violently they gauge the wall. Maria is waiting for her in the shared kitchen, and like the others, looks a little worse for wear. She hands Natasha a cup of coffee.

"At least there’s no sugar crash, right?"


	11. Patrice on Duty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Patrice had been delighted Director Fury gave her this mission. Super important but now she's in disarray. Who knew little tiny Maria and Natasha were such trouble?! It's bad enough that they sneak out of quarantine and Barton helps them! Or she suspects he does since she found all 3 of them sitting in the ducts playing with cards, WITHOUT HER! And ohhh Maria is so cute with that pout! SHe just wants to pinch those cheeks! Oh dear, Maria sure can through a punch at that age.

What was that sound?

" _Go fish_ "

It’s coming from the air vents!

Patrice was entrusted with the safety of Little Maria and Natasha but they disappeared out of quarantine!

” _Nope! Go fish!_ " Patrice can swear that those little voices are coming through the air vent so she’s hauling a ladder over to an opening in hopes of locating where they’re coming from. Taking off the cover, she finds Little Maria and Little Nat playing cards with Agent Barton.

"How’s it going Agent Patrice?" asks Clint with a grin.

"Whew! Better now. Maria, Natasha, we really need to go back to quarantine now. Natasha, the doctors need to run some more tests and take some blood" says Patrice as she tries to stabilize herself against the vent on the ladder.

"No" says the small Russian as she scoots back a bit. Clint raises his eyebrows at the fearful look on Natasha’s face. Maria sees it too and frowns.

"Natasha, I really don’t have time to climb into the vent after you, come on" says Patrice as she reaches for her. Maria practically growls before punching Patrice in the nose. Patrice yelps and looses her footing on the ladder. Having fallen, she sees the two little ones make their way down the ladder faster than Clint can catch them. She sits up and pulls a pair of handcuffs from her belt. She manages to catch Natasha’s wrist and get one side of the cuffs on her wrist. Maria sees this and latches herself into the other side.

In the medical area the two are sitting on the same bed, Maria still frowning and sitting as close to Nat as possible. Every time someone tries to approach Natasha, Maria takes a swing. Finally, much to Patrice’s embarrassment, Nick Fury is called.

"We need a blood sample" says Fury calmly.

"Off first" says Maria as she extends her wrist, her hand holding Nat’s. Nick arches an eyebrow and then turns to hide his smirk. He agrees and Banner draws blood from Maria first to reassure Natasha that it will be okay. Only then does Natasha stop trying to run. Once that is over, the two go play with an enormous pile of LEGOS that Pepper has rounded up. The two play happily while Patrice takes pictures in between icing her nose.


End file.
